Honey locust is an incredibly adaptable tree, able to tolerate poor soils, drought, heat, and urban stress. This tree can often be found in floodplains, fencerows, roadsides, forest edges, open fields, and other disturbed sites. Honey locust is a quick growing tree, making it useful for erosion control, wind breaks, and providing shade. Its wood is dense, hard, coarse-grained, strong, stiff, shock-resistant, and takes a high polish which gives it many uses, although it is too scarce to be of economic importance. Honey locust provides wildlife and livestock with high-protein food. The pods are eaten by cattle, goats, white-tailed deer, opossum, squirrel, rabbits, and birds. The young vegetative growth is eaten by livestock and deer.